Londoners won’t need to get their wellies out until at least 2070, according to a new report from the Environment Agency.
The Thames Barrier was built to protect the city from flooding and was thought to need replacing around 2030. Designers based this lifespan on estimates of future sea-level rises, now believed to be wrong, meaning a decision about replacing the barrier can be postponed until the middle of the century. Let’s hope they don’t postpone too long - the current Barrier took almost 20 years to plan and eight years to build - otherwise we might be seeing scenes like the one from the 2007 film Flood, based on the Richard Doyle novel.
As well as keeping our feet dry, at least until the British Summer arrives, the Thames Barrier has been voted one of London’s top attractions for tourists by Visit London for its iconic structure and park built as part of a regeneration project.
